Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Thailand jungle food: Fishtail Palm Fruit danger

I have mentioned the Fishtail Palm several times as a jungle food
source in the jungle... partly because it's so common and party because
it's tasty.

This time I want to mention the fruit. The actual pulp part of the
fruit has raphide crystals made of calcium oxalate. DO NOT eat the pulp
part of this fruit! It's not really a poison, but the sharp crystals
will be highly irritating.

The kernel part of the seed is edible. It's a
lot of work to get this kernal. If you've got lots of time on your
hands and just want to sit in the shade and do it, then it makes sense.
It would be a good idea to wash the kernals in case there was any
residual pulp crystals left.

I have personally swallowed some calcium oxalate crystals. It was very unpleasant.

Wilderness Jungle Survival Trekking and Training

As we move further and further away from nature, it seems like a lot of us are interested in finding out if we could actually go backwards and live off of the land... it seems like the latest buzz is doing it with as little as possible, be that in the form of getting lost (survival) or minimalist camping (bushcraft).

You can experience the joy of being able to survive with minimal gear while enjoying one of our survival training courses. Khao Sok is the best place for this combination. Phang Nga Province offers old growth jungle and it's logistically much easier than Khao Sok.

A big part of the trip is jungle trekking. It’s so beautiful here that you’ll want to hike around anyway. During your trekking adventures you’ll learn a lot about the abundant wild edible plants in southern Thailand.